Companies that use "best practices" in interviewing and that are extremely effective in consistently hiring top performers, use customized or standard behavioral-based interview guides with interview questions to remain consistent in their line of questioning.

These companies not only train their recruiters, but they train their executives, department managers, and hiring managers on legal and effective interview questions and techniques to utilize during the interview.

These same "risk wise" companies will conduct a job analysis audit for every position within their companies to establish the types of behavioral and situational questions necessary for their interviewing process.

A job analysis audit is a process whereby a company compiles objective data of what is required to be successful in a given position. This process is conducted via interviews, surveys, and testing (both hard skills and soft skills testing).

This process allows the company to objectively identify the competencies, behaviors, thinking and decision making styles, as well as the technical skills that are common among their top performers and required for the position in question. This process establishes a hiring “benchmark” or interviewing "guide" to follow.

The resulting list of critical competencies is what interviewers will use to evaluate candidates. This benchmark, custom to each position, leads the company to define the core line of behavioral interview questions that will uncover these critical competencies, behaviors, and thinking styles, as they directly relate to the job requirements.

Some of the most effective pre-employment behavioral assessments in the market will provide the necessary [link url=http://humanresources.about.com/od/interviewing/a/behavior_interv.htm]behavioral interview[/link] questions to pose to candidates. This is due to the assessment's objective evaluation of each candidate’s competencies.

Here are a few examples of legally-defensible behavioral interview questions that will assist in uncovering core competencies in an interview.

• What has been a particularly demanding goal for you to achieve? (This interview question taps into the candidate's achievement orientation and requires them to explain the obstacle and their thought process and actions to overcoming the obstacle.)

• Can you think of a situation in which an innovative course of action was needed? What did you do in this situation? (This interview question allows you to uncover whether the candidate can develop innovative solutions to work-related problems, and identify potential opportunities and ways to capitalize on them.)

• What are the typical customer interactions you have in your present position? Can you think of a recent example of one of these? (This interview question focuses on the candidate’s customer service orientation.)

• Have you ever been in a situation where you have had to take on new tasks or roles? Describe this situation and what you did? (This interview question allows you to probe into the candidate’s degree of flexibility.)

• In your present position, what standards have you set for doing a good job? How did you determine them? (This interview question allows you to uncover if the candidate has high work standards.)

• Conducting a job analysis audit to objectively identify the core competencies required for a given job, and then customizing a list of behavioral-based interview questions like the ones mentioned above to identify those competencies, can significantly reduce your exposure to employment practices claims and increase your potential for hiring top performers.

By instituting guidelines such as these and making sure that your organization's managers follow them you will have gone far in reducing your risk of a lawsuit from an employee or job applicant.